Innergize … inspire, engage, energize!

Main menu

Post navigation

The Gap Between Knowing And Doing

The previous post suggested that most people already have a wealth of knowledge that if applied, would make them more successful. The real question becomes what prevents us from doing what we know? Using our knowledge consistently? While answers may seem as unique as each of us, there are some themes.

Take my friend Paul who faithfully followed techniques recommend in the current success literature (media really.) This new and improved version of positive thinking adds emotions as a critical part of the mix.

All well and good. But as time passed Paul failed to make any progress in his life. Even though he was working harder, he said it felt like taking one step forward, two steps back. Know the feeling?

Insights from neuro-science
Doctors Joseph le Doux and Antonio Damasio, are respected neuro scientists working to understand how the brain processess emotions. They now estimate that up to 95% of our emotions, decisions and behaviours are the result of unconscious mental processing. Think about that. Emotions, decisions, behaviours, running automatically without our conscious rational thinking.

One step forward, two steps back
Back to Paul who was using his new positive thinking + feeling techniques to achieve a very specific goal. Here’s what a couple of questions revealed:

Although Paul had the skills to achieve his goal and knew others less knowlegeable who were succeeding, he still wasn’t sure it was possible for him.

He wanted to believe it, wished it was possible, but just wasn’t sure.

The more he effort he made to move forward, the more stumbling blocks he seemed to find. The harder it was.

The fixOnce we discovered his lack of conviction, a fear lurking behind a wish, we used NLP to make the change. Paul was able to unplug the fear, neutralize it and reconnect to a strong inner belief in himself that fully supported his goal.

We didn’t waste any time trying to figure out what caused Paul’s lack of conviction. We simply updated his belief using a technique for working with the unconscious mind. Neuro linguistic programming (NLP) has been teaching people how to work with their own unconscious mind for over 30 years, long before many would even acknowledge the concept.

Today Paul is seeing the results of efforts, he’s working smarter, has more energy and says he’s having more fun too!

Tomorrow …. another theme, one that can cause you to to spin your wheels between competing priorities.